


Broken Glass and Crumpled Bills

by igrockspock



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Backstory, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 11:24:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7755889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/pseuds/igrockspock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Claire's parents taught her to stand up for people, they probably didn't imagine she'd develop a secret career stitching up vigilantes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Glass and Crumpled Bills

When Claire was seven years old, she threatened the school bully with a broken beer bottle she found at the edge of the playground. His name was Darius, and she was tired of watching him steal pocket change from kids who didn't have much anyway. The punishment was a ten-day suspension from school and mandatory counseling, and her mother spanked her so hard she could barely sit down for days. Her father slipped her a piece of tres leches cake when nobody was watching and said he was going to tell her something that most adults didn't like to admit. Teachers and police officers and the government don't always look out for you, he said. Sometimes you have to take matters in her own hands.

She thought about that a few years later, when Tía Luisa's asshole boyfriend took a surprise trip to the bottom of the stairwell. The restraining order hadn't done much good, but the broken leg sure seemed to teach him a lesson. He didn't come back to the apartment when the hospital let him go. Of course, Luisa couldn't pay the rent without him, but the family took up a collection for a few months till she got back on her feet. Claire handed over the seven dollars and thirty-four cents in her piggy bank, even though she wasn't sure it would help much. Her mother said not to worry about that. Most people couldn't solve a problem on their own, but if everyone did what they could, it would make a difference. Her mom was right: in nursing school, when she ran out of money for books, her aunts and uncles and cousins pitched in their grubby fives and crumpled ones until she had enough to order the cheapest used copies from Amazon.

When her parents taught her those lessons, they probably didn't mean for her to drag strange men out of dumpsters, or play nursemaid to a super strong girl with a bulletproof not-a-boyfriend. But if she didn't do it, then who would? Hell's Kitchen sucked. It was too big and too fucked up for any one person to make a difference, so most people threw up their hands and waited for the police and the real estate developers to bail them out. Claire remembered watching the school bully run away from her shards of glass and the look in her auntie's eyes when she gave her all the money in her piggy bank. When she saw the vigilantes, she picked up her suture kit and said, _I volunteer._


End file.
